Undercurrents (magazine)
Started in January 1972, Undercurrents magazine was a medium for radical views on scientific and technological subjects. It was envisioned, coordinated and edited by Godfrey Boyle. Started as a quarterly, it later appeared every two months and there were 63 issues published until 1984, when it merged with “Resurgence” magazine. It had its peak in the 1970s, when it had a circulation of about 7,000. Content Undercurrents promoted “alternative Technology”, renewable energy, waste recyclimg, self-sufficiency, decentralisation, and other similar topics. Articles about communes, the intentional community scene, cooperatives and other grassroots political alternatives also found space in the magazine. In addition, it dealt with pseudoscientific subjects such as orgone energy, leylines and dowsing. The index of Undercurrents 1 to 43, prepared by Charmian Larke of the Alternative Technology Information Group, gives an idea of how wide the spectrum of themes and articles was up to the start of 1981. Science with a Human Face In their manifesto, “ Science with a Human Face“ the Undercurrents collective stated, “UNDERCURRENTS believes it is possible to evolve a 'sadder but a wiser' science, a science that is aware of its limitations as well as its strengths, which will search the hitherto ignored areas of human experience for clues to a more meaningful and relevant synthesis than is dreamt of in our present philosophies. We also believe that technology can be reoriented to serve not economies and governments but individual human beings -- to provide small-scale sources of basics like energy, food, shelter, clothing and tools; to provide unfettered communications between the smaller, more human communities that our world must create if it is to avoid overpopulation, alienation, violence and all the attendant evils of the mass society; and less importantly perhaps to provide simple data processing and automation facilities in a way that genuinely relieves human beings of boredom and drudgery without enslaving them to machines or to their owners. Not that UNDERCURRENTS believes that decentralisation should -- or could .. be carried to extremes. It is unnecessary and undesirable for humanity to regress into a disconnected series of isolated cultures. The cross fertilisation of ideas and genes that has been so vital to the evolution of our race should continue in a decentralised society, as is perfectly feasible given intelligent use of modern techniques of transportation and communication. In UNDERCURRENTS itself we have tried to implement the notions of variety and decentralisation, that we advocate in wider spheres.” Contibutors Well known authors who contributed to Undercurrents included: *E.F. Schumacher, author of “Small is Beautiful” , *Geofrey Ashe author of many books about King Arthur, *Milovan Djilas author of “The New Class”, *John Seymour author of “The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency”, *Colin Ward, author of Anarchy in Action, *John Papworth, Founder Editor of Resurgence magazine *Godfrey Boyle, author of “Renewable Energy and the Grid” *Dave Elliot of the Open University (UK), *Herbert Giradet, and many, many more. *Some of the art work was by Cliff Harper. Undercurrents on the Web Recently one of its editors has started to republish the magazine on the World Wide Web using Scribd. Up to now (June 2009) issues #5 through to #17 are available. External Link Undercurrents: the magazine of radical science and alternative technology on Scribd E Text The Undercurrents Book, Radical Technology